When We Were Divided

LoveReading Says

While the word “absorbing” is often bandied around in book reviews, in the case of Liz Flanagan’s When We Were Divided, it’s entirely apt. Presenting richly detailed accounts of the internal worlds and actions of two sisters on opposing sides of civil war in 17 th-century England, and the heartrending story of a boy who's compelled to reinvent himself as a solider, the well-woven narrative laces raw political drama with intense personal crises that chime with timeless resonance.  

“My sister and I were ill-fated planets, always in opposition”. The conflict between sisters that sits at the core of the story is deftly conveyed early on, as is the way circumstances of life have taken their toll on the women’s respective spirits. While Jane describes her sister as “the shadow of a woman” and is shocked to see her once-bright fire doused, Isabel herself wonders, “When did I become this — hen-like, maternal — scratching out a quiet life? I had quite mislaid myself”, and soon the already-divided sisters find themselves split between loyalty to the King and loyalty to Parliament. In Jane’s words, the war is “slicing her family in half”, and she’s all-but destroyed when her last son leaves to fight for the king. Meanwhile, Isabel’s flame is rekindled when’s she’s stirred to join the rebels.  

Through the sisters, Flanagan conjures a potent account of women in times of war, with Isabel recognising early on how women “filled the space left by our men. We were like spindly saplings, rising up in the clearing left by a storm-felled tree”. And both sisters’ lives are changed through Kit, who adopts their deceased brother’s identity and joins the king’s army in order to survive.  

Intricately plotted as it balances introspective reflection with illuminating insights into the civil war, When We Were Divided is a novel to take one’s time over as it simmers with the agonies of conflict and love.

Joanne Owen

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